For Speedway Motorsports seventh annual Day of Service, Wednesday, employees put their commitment to positively impacting the community on full display, with 84 volunteers lending over 275 hours of labor to three Cabarrus County nonprofits as well as creating Bags of Hope, sensory kits and refreshing Blessing Boxes around the community.
Volunteers from Charlotte Motor Speedway, The Speedway Club and Speedway Children’s Charities pitched in at Wings of Eagles Ranch, Opportunity House, Piedmont Residential Development Center and undertaking activities ranging from beautification projects and ceiling installations to serving lunch and painting. In addition, volunteers packed “Bags of Hope” to be shared with victims of human trafficking and sensory bags to be distributed to neurodivergent guests who visit America’s Home for Racing through the year. Crews also refreshed several Blessing Boxes that provide free food through 1Can.
“We have this amazing team that has a servant’s heart so what we do is bring all of our resources, all of our energy, all our enthusiasm and focus on charities in the community that don’t have enough to get by, and a place where we can make a big difference,” said Charlotte Motor Speedway President and General manager Greg Walter. “The charities that we select to do this with are the ones that every day, they’re scraping to get by. This team can come in and make a big difference, and it feels like this charity has a sigh of relief that we come in and push them over the goal line.”
One team spent the morning cleaning up Wings of Eagles Ranch, a therapeutic horse ranch in Cabarrus County that provides families with special needs children and adults, along with at-risk youth, the opportunity to gain strength and balance while also building self-esteem and self-confidence through equine therapy. Volunteers at Wings of Eagles assisted in ceiling completion, house-wrapping and helping to finish the inside of the barn.
“You guys are blessing the socks off of Wings of Eagles Ranch by providing your people to do very, very large projects that we only trust with Charlotte Motor Speedway. It’s beyond words,” said Wings of Eagles Ranch Executive Director Christine Cronin. “You guys come in in four hours and you’ve got the whole project done. It’s amazing what you are pulling off in such a short amount of time.”
Pit Crew members also supported Piedmont Residential Development Center (PRDC) and its location in Mount Pleasant. PRDC is a nonprofit that provides residential care for those with severe mental and physical disabilities. Service projects included interior painting, laying mulch and freshening up the outside landscaping of the home.
“This extra love means a whole lot because it not only refreshes our home, but it gives them [the residents] something else to enjoy. Believe it or not, just because you’re painting, it means an awful lot because they get to smell the paint, and the freshness,” said PRDC Program Director Sandy Cox. “If you guy hadn’t done this it would probably be another year or two before we would ever get some change done so it’s tremendously a godsend.”
Crews visited Opportunity House in downtown Concord, a local nonprofit that provides food, clothes and services to the homeless community. Volunteers jumped into action repairing a retaining wall, pressure washing and building new furniture for the facility. The speedway’s partners, STR Mechanical installed a new HVAC unit. Following those renovations, volunteers served lunch to the residents, donated by The Speedway Club.
“There are no homeless people, I tell every guest here, you are not a homeless person you are a person experiencing homelessness,” Opportunity House Executive Director Kimani Varner said. “We also have pastoral consultation because we are in the business of introducing people to Jesus Christ.
Crews also visited various Blessing Box locations around the community, which are stocked with donated items such as non-perishable foods and hygiene products through 1Can. The speedway team replaced hinges, repainted and restocked items for those in need.
Volunteers back at Charlotte Motor Speedway packed over 300 “Bags of Hope” to be donated to human trafficking victims. These bags were filled with sanitation items, bibles, notebooks, words of aspirations and other cosmetic necessities. Crews also packed over 100 sensory bags, which included fidget toys, headphones and sunglasses to disperse to youth and adults who become over-stimulated by the loud noises and lights at Charlotte Motor Speedway, zMAX Dragway and The Dirt Track.
“It’s probably one of my favorite days of the year, I know the value of the blessing that they’re going to receive, and it’s so important that we give back,” said Susan McKee who spearheads the Pit Crew volunteer group. “We have resources that a lot of places don’t have. We have a lot of skills that are needed out in the community. We focus all year-long on taking care of the fans and making memories, but we just made memories today.